Abu Dhabi

Like it or not, the Formula One World Drivers’ Champion is the driver who scores the most points over the course of the season. Sure, older championship formulae saw some low results eliminated so only the best finishes counted but that’s not the system we have now. You have to be consistently fast to be the WDC today.

While Lewis Hamilton may be the fastest driver in F1, he wasn’t always at or near the front of the field. Love him or hate him, that’s why he isn’t the champion for the third-straight year. The consistency, speed and luck of Nico Rosberg won him a well-earned first Formula One World Drivers’ Championship.

No matter how boring the race might be, all eyes will be on the two championship leaders. With a 12 point lead in the championship, all Nico Rosberg needs is a podium to win the championship. For Lewis, he needs more luck than skill to win the title. No one expects the Red Bulls to factor into the championship battle except Christian Horner but Lewis needs two Red Bulls between he and Nico to have a prayer.

So while the F1 Power Rankings take the grid for the final time this season, the Rankings won’t directly try to predict the outcome of the championship, just the race. But the Rankings’ favour the Championship leader.

Like this:

While the 2014 Formula One World Championship may have wrapped up last week, that doesn’t mean that work has finished for the teams of the Formula One World Championship. After the season finale, the teams stayed on for another couple of days to learn some last lessons from their 2014 cars and start work on 2015.

Like this:

Double points, regular points and no points. It doesn’t matter what the points on offer would have been in the final race of the 2014 Formula One World Championship because the result would have been the same. With an ERS failure crippling his car for the final half of the race, reliability was finally on Lewis Hamilton’s side as he scored the win and clinched the World Drivers’ Championship.

So we’ve reached the final race of the 2014 Formula One World Championship. Normally, the 17 point gap between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg would be insurmountable under normal circumstances. However, thanks to the wonder that is double points, he’s not out of it yet. A couple of positions between the Silver Arrows can mean the difference between a championship and 2nd place.

You know, I didn’t like the idea of NASCAR’s new Chase format (or any of their Chase formats) but it worked brilliantly in practice. I don’t think double points is going to win anyone over unless Lewis wins the title. Even then, no one will like it.

Like this:

While it feels like Sebastian Vettel has completely and utterly dominated the 2013 Formula One World Championship, it was comparatively close up until the summer break. At that point, Vettel was 38 points ahead of the competition. Since then, he’s won every single race. That includes Sunday’s running of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Well, the season isn’t over but it may as well be. Sebastian Vettel is the World Drivers’ Champion for the fourth consecutive season. Red Bull is the World Constructors’ Champion for the fourth time. The only thing not settled is who’s going to finish 2nd. So who do I have making a late run? Find out in this week’s Power Rankings.